Friday, January 12, 2007

How "Crappy" Are Tulsa's Schools?

We're sure there are problems at Tulsa Public Schools. The district is the state's largest, after all, so it would be amazing if it didn't have some bad teachers, misguided administrators, and rundown facilities. TPS, it seems to us, is always a work in progress, to put it charitably.

Still, the Tulsa blogger known as meeciteewurker used the lewd behavior of a young (and apparently idiotic) TPS bus driver this week to unload on TPS, referring to the district's "crappy education," "violence," and "indoctrination."

We will stipulate the "violence" charge—school violence is far too common these days. As to the district's "crappy education" and "indoctrination," we beg to differ.

Seems to us, much general education depends on student effort, not to mention parental effort. Even a poor school, in other words, can't hold a good kid down, especially a student with supportive parents who encourage learning. Our favorite example (and we have others) is a Edison HS graduate who studied French (among other things) at OU and is now pursuing a doctorate in comparative literature. His parents are pretty proud of this TPS product.

AltTulsa has personal experience with TPS indoctrination, too, but our example was (and still is) beating the drum of conservative Republicanism, values Tom DeLay and Pat Robertson would love.

As we said, TPS has its fair share of problems. But labeling the whole system—every student, every school, every teacher—"crappy" is a charge so broad and unsubstantiated that it doesn't hold up to even modest scrutiny.